The Essence is the annual end-of-the-year show of the University of Applied Arts Vienna and should showcase “selected” works of students and graduates of each department of the last school year. The Essence is also a screen for projections, an empty signifier that can be filled with ideas, dreams and desires. In reality it is also a space where situations that will eventually result in an exhibition, are constantly negotiated: the size of the exhibition space assigned to each department, the number of participants, the length of the text displayed, etc. etc. etc.

This year, the departments of Skulptur und Raum, Angewandte Fotografie and Site-Specific Art were put together in an area on the ground-floor of Alte Post, so we decided not to separate the classes and not to compartmentalize the existing space even more. Instead, we wanted to focus on the interdisciplinary qualities. So we put topics and concepts on display, raise questions, and showcase artistic strategies that represent something at best called “contemporaneity.”